THE distillery sector has beaten Government energy- efficiency targets, according to the Scotch Whisky Association.
The lobby group said the latest results from the Department of Energy and Climate Change revealed the 71 sites participating in the Spirits Energy Efficiency scheme had improved their energy efficiency by 25% since 1999, more than meeting the Government’s target for the sector.
The SWA said some 66 sites are Scotch whisky distilleries.
Meeting the energy-efficiency target allows companies to benefit from a 65% reduction in the Climate Change Levy, which will lead to a saving of about £2.6 million a year for the UK spirits sector.
Julie Hesketh-Laird, of the SWA, said: “This outstanding result has been achieved by investments in energy-saving technologies across the board, including the construction of new distilleries and investments in efficiency measures at existing sites.”
However, she added: “In our sector, we have long-called for our bottling operations to be eligible for inclusion in this effective climate-change scheme.
“It’s odd, illogical and inequitable that the bottling of other drinks can qualify for a Climate Change Agreement, but not the bottling of spirits at large stand-alone sites. This must be addressed.”
Drinks giant Diageo recently unveiled its £40m environmentally friendly Roseisle Distillery in Elgin, thought to be the world’s greenest whisky distillery. It is also the first to be built in Scotland in 30 years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article